80% of PlayStation’s Sales In Q1 2024 Came From Digital Downloads

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Abdullah Waseem

At T4G, my task is to cover the latest news around the gaming globe ASAP and with the utmost precision. I adore all the games and respect all the devs behind the amazing games that we get all year. So, whether it’s a PC or a Console game, I got it all covered. 

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Sony has released its latest financial report for Q1 2024, highlighting PlayStation’s performance in FY2024. With overall decent results, an interesting highlight from the report is that over 80% of PlayStation’s sales were digital in the first quarter of 2024.

Why it matters: Digital media is becoming more popular than physical discs. While Sony still launches physical copies of all its games, stats show that fans prefer the digital media over physical releases.

For context, digital titles accounted for 70% of all sales in FY2023, so they have seen a 10% increase in Q1 of 2024. Also, this puts the physical sales at a mere 20%. This is yet another instance of how the digital media is taking over.

There is no denying the ease of digital distribution, especially now with services like PlayStation Plus. Sony has stated that the increase in sales is mostly from network services, mainly PlayStation Plus, their subscription service equivalent to Game Pass.

By the sounds of it, PS Plus is thriving. It is still one of Sony’s main sources of revenue in this quarter. The service has certainly improved quite a lot in recent years.

Overall, Sony has reported a 12% increase in sales with their gaming division year-on-year, with operating income increasing by 32%. However, the company has also revealed a decrease in hardware sales despite solid results overall.

In Q1 2024, Sony sold 2.4 million units of the PS5 compared to 3.3 million in Q1 2023. Despite having a rather flat 2024 with not many first-party games to offer, Sony has delivered surprisingly good results.

Sony has the PS5 Pro lined up for later this year, which could help them with the hardware sales. Astro Bot is also planned for 2024, which could also lead to many sales. Overall, Q1 2024 has been decent for Sony despite lower hardware sales.

Abdullah Waseem

News Reporter

Abdullah is an avid gamer who primarily plays single-player titles. If you can’t find him anywhere, he’ll probably be at his desk playing The Witcher 3 for the millionth time. When he isn’t playing games, he’s either reading or writing about them.